A number of environments require the conveyance of ice or other flowable materials from a bulk storage or generation area to various areas associated with use or consumption of the material. For purposes of this disclosure, and for ease of reference, ice and ice storage will be used by way of example. However, this is not meant to limit the application of the present invention to ice or any other particular flowable material or storage therefor.
Commonly, commercial food and beverage and hospitality environments require the transport of ice from a bulk source to locations more conducive to the display of food stuffs and beverage dispensing activities. Transportation of the ice requires maintaining the sanitation of the ice, transporting the ice in a manner that limits or reduces unintended spills of the ice product, and conveying the ice in a convenient manner to limit the physical requirements or efforts of staff responsible for replenishing or distributing the ice. The movement of ice in such environments also commonly requires consideration as to the storage and movement of the carts, totes, or buckets throughout the respective environments due to the limited space available in the behind the scenes areas, such as the kitchen areas, associated with many such environments.
Most commonly, ice is communicated or transported throughout the environment by staff personnel who repeatedly travel to and fro between the bulk source and the vicinity of the use or consumption activity with one or more ice totes or buckets being manually carried. The size of the container, the physical capability of staff, spatial tolerances along the available route(s), ambient conditions, and the usage or rate of consumption of the ice all contribute to the number of trips as well as staff required to adequately replenish the ice.
In an effort to expedite transportation, sanitation, and safety of moving ice throughout the use environment and mitigate or reduce the physical capabilities required to effectuate such activities, others provide wheeled carts that are configured to transport multiple ice bins or totes per trip. While such systems allow a single staff person to transport greater quantities of ice that can commonly by carried by the same staff person, such systems are not without their respective drawbacks. One such system includes a wheeled platform that is shaped to cooperate with a plurality of generally rectilinear ice buckets. The multiple row and column orientation of the various discrete ice buckets requires a substantially large footprint that makes the cart generally ill suited or even unusable for use in the somewhat cramped quarters or passages associated with many behind the scenes areas, such as kitchen spaces, associated with such environments.
Such transport systems can also dramatically increase the operating costs and sanitation issues associated with implementation of such systems. Food and drink stuffs are preferably communicated in a covered manner to limit contamination of the materials during the transport activity. Where commodities such as ice are transported by placing open containers on a cart that is moved in close proximity to counters or the like associated with food preparation but at elevations generally below the working surface associated with the counter, the inadvertent introduction of food stuffs into full or empty ice containers as they traverse past the food preparation stations is a risk. Close quarters along the transportation path has the tendency to increase the risk associated with inadvertent contamination of the ice conveyance system.
In view of the variety of issues discussed above, it should be appreciated that the sanitary condition of ice, safety of the worker, and the efficiency of the transport of such commodities remain a predominant issue in most if not all commercial use and consumption environments. Accordingly, a need exists for a material transport system that reduces the potential for contamination of the flowable material via unintended contact or introduction of foreign materials during conveyance activities, provides a conveyance vehicle that has a compact footprint and multiple modes of transport that improve the tolerance for using the cart in confined or otherwise crowded environments, and improves the efficiency and safety with which staff or other personnel can convey the ice throughout the respective environment.